Editing Innovation (section)

==History==
{{See also|Innovation economics}}
Innovation must be understood in the historical setting in which its processes were and are taking place.<ref name=":6"/> The first full-length discussion about innovation was published by the Greek philosopher and historian [[Xenophon]] (430–355 BCE). He viewed the concept as multifaceted and connected it to political action. The word for innovation that he uses, ''kainotomia'', had previously occurred in two plays by [[Aristophanes]] ({{circa |446}} – {{circa | 386}} BCE). [[Plato]] (died {{circa | 348}} BCE) discussed innovation in his [[Laws (dialogue)|''Laws'']] dialogue and was not very fond of the concept. He was skeptical to it both in culture (dancing and art) and in education (he did not believe in introducing new games and toys to the kids).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Godin, Benoit |title=Innovation contested: the idea of innovation over the centuries |year= 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn= 9781315855608 |oclc= 903958473}}</ref> [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BCE) did not like organizational innovations: he believed that all possible forms of organization had been discovered.<ref>Politics II as cited by Benoît Godin (2015)</ref>

Before the 4th century in Rome, the words ''novitas'' and ''res nova / nova res'' were used with either negative or positive judgment on the innovator. This concept meant "renewing" and was incorporated into the new Latin verb word ''innovo'' ("I renew" or "I restore") in the centuries that followed. The ''[[Vulgate]]'' version of the Bible (late 4th century CE) used the word in spiritual as well as political contexts. It also appeared in poetry, mainly with spiritual connotations, but was also connected to political, material and cultural aspects.<ref name=":0" />

[[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]]'s ''[[The Prince]]'' (1513) discusses innovation in a political setting. Machiavelli portrays it as a strategy a Prince may employ in order to cope with a constantly changing world as well as the corruption within it. Here innovation is described as introducing change in government (new laws and institutions); Machiavelli's later book ''The Discourses'' (1528) characterises innovation as imitation, as a return to the original that has been corrupted by people and by time.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} Thus for Machiavelli innovation came with positive connotations. This is however an exception in the usage of the concept of innovation from the 16th century and onward. No innovator from the renaissance until the late 19th century ever thought of applying the word innovator upon themselves, it was a word used to attack enemies.<ref name=":0" />

From the 1400s{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} through the 1600s, the concept of innovation was pejorative – the term was an [[Early Modern English|early-modern]] synonym for "rebellion", "revolt" and "[[heresy]]".<ref name="Mazzaferro">{{cite journal| last1= Mazzaferro|first1= Alexander| year= 2018| title= Such a Murmur": Innovation, Rebellion, and Sovereignty in William Strachey's "True Reportory| journal=Early American Literature|volume= 53 |issue= 1| pages=3–32| doi=10.1353/eal.2018.0001| s2cid=166005186}}</ref><ref name="Diss">{{cite thesis| last1= Mazzaferro| first1=Alexander McLean| url=https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/55583/| title="No newe enterprize" (Doctoral dissertation)| date=2017| publisher=Rutgers University| doi= 10.7282/T38W3HFQ| access-date=19 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="Lepore">{{cite magazine| last1= Lepore| first1= Jill | date= 23 June 2014 | title=The Disruption Machine: What the gospel of innovation gets wrong | magazine=The New Yorker |url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/the-disruption-machine | access-date=19 February 2019 }}</ref><ref name="Green">{{cite news| last1= Green |first1= Emma |date= 20 June 2013 | title=Innovation: The History of a Buzzword | publisher=The Atlantic | url= https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/innovation-the-history-of-a-buzzword/277067/ | access-date=19 February 2019}}
</ref><ref>{{oed|innovation}}
</ref> In the 1800s{{Clarify timeframe|date=February 2022}} people promoting [[capitalism]] saw [[socialism]] as an innovation and spent a lot of energy working against it. For instance, [[Goldwin Smith]] (1823-1910) saw the spread of social innovations as an attack on money and banks. These social innovations were socialism, communism, nationalization, cooperative associations.<ref name=":0" />

In the 20th century, the concept of innovation did not become popular until after the Second World War of 1939–1945. This is the point in time when people started to talk about ''technological'' product innovation and tie it to the idea of economic growth and competitive advantage.<ref>{{Cite book| author1=Benoit Godin| title= The invention of technological innovation: languages, discourses and ideology in historical perspective| publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing| year=2019| isbn=9781789903348| oclc=1125747489}}</ref> [[Joseph Schumpeter]] (1883–1950), who contributed greatly to the study of [[innovation economics]], is seen as the one who made the term popular. Schumpeter argued that industries must incessantly revolutionize the economic structure from within, that is: innovate with better or more effective processes and products, as well as with market distribution (such as the transition from the craft shop to factory). He famously asserted that "[[creative destruction]] is the essential fact about [[capitalism]]".<ref name="capsocdem">{{cite book |author=Schumpeter, J. A. |title=Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy |publisher=Routledge |year=1943 |isbn=9780415107624 |edition=6 |pages=81–84 |author-link=Joseph Schumpeter}}</ref> In [[commerce|business]] and in [[economics]], innovation can provide a catalyst for growth when [[entrepreneur]]s continuously search for better ways to satisfy their [[Consumer demand|consumer base]] with improved quality, durability, service and price - searches which may come to fruition in innovation with advanced technologies and organizational strategies.<ref>Heyne, P., Boettke, P. J., and Prychitko, D. L. (2010). ''The Economic Way of Thinking''. Prentice Hall, 12th ed. pp. 163, 317–18.</ref> Schumpeter's findings coincided with rapid advances in [[transportation]] and [[communications]] in the beginning of the 20th century, which had huge impacts for the economic concepts of [[factor endowment]]s and [[comparative advantage]] as new combinations of resources or production techniques constantly transform markets to satisfy consumer needs. Hence, innovative behaviour becomes relevant for economic success.<ref>{{Citation |last=Swedberg |first=Richard |title=Rebuilding Schumpeter's Theory of Entrepreneurship |date=2009-01-30 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781848446168.00018 |work=Marshall and Schumpeter on Evolution |access-date=2023-12-25 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |doi=10.4337/9781848446168.00018 |isbn=978-1-84844-616-8}}</ref>